Hellenic Museum teaches lessons of the past, present

In its quest to see thousands more patrons come through its doors, the National Hellenic Museum has taken an odyssey of its own.

Last weekend, the National Hellenic Museum officially opened its new 40,000-square-foot facility in the heart of Chicago's Greektown on Halsted and Van Buren streets.

That's four times the size of the temporary space it previously occupied.

“It's an exciting time for us,” Executive Director Stephanie Vlahakis said. “We've planned it for a number of years. ... it's just great to have our own home.”

Vlahakis says the modernist space, designed by Chicago architect Demetrios Stavrianos, “has some very subtle design features that help to open up the museum to the neighborhood to be a part of the experience.”

That includes a porcelain stone floor, which appears to be an extension of the concrete sidewalk outside. And a first floor, wrapped in glass, seemingly brings the outside in.

The museum has set what Vlahakis calls a “very conservative target” of 100,000 visitors to the museum in 2012.

One-third of those visitors, she said, are expected to be school groups.

Teachers, Vlahakis said, will be able to use the museum and its surrounding neighborhood — which includes the site of Jane Addams' Hull House — as a part of lessons on how Chicago's immigrant communities lived and worked, connecting them with the journeys of ancient Greeks and today's Greek Americans.

On the National Hellenic Museum's first floor, the temporary 4,000-square-foot “Gods, Myths and Mortals” exhibit — aimed at middle school aged-children — lets young visitors put themselves in Homer's legendary leather sandals.

Developed by the Children's Museum of Manhattan, the exhibit weaves in Homer's epic poems “Iliad” and “Odyssey.” Upon entering the exhibit, which runs until August, children are asked by a computerized Cyclops who they are and why they have come.

An area dedicated to the sirens — the mythical creatures who wooed Odysseus and his men with their haunting songs — allows visitors to try their own siren call.

The exhibit also introduces children to life in ancient Greece with topics like how children dressed, what school was like and who got to attend and at what ages.

Children also are given a chance to match up word prefixes and suffixes with Greek etymologies.

On the second floor is the museum's permanent exhibit “In search of Home, the Greek Journey From Myth to Modern Day.” The display, which is not yet completed, features the museum's collection of artifacts and tells the story of the contributions of ancient Greeks and Greek Americans — from presidential candidate Michael Dukakis to a trio of Berwyn brothers who owned a Chicago sweets shop.

Museum visitors are able to get a peek inside the developing exhibit and may get a nudge to look into their own closets and attics for family memorabilia they may consider donating.

A few days into its grand opening, Vlahakis said, things are off to quite a start.

“We had a great reception, and we've had a lot of people here,” she said. Vlahakis describes a “great energy for the new museum. Lots of new faces, lots of new families.”

National Hellenic Museum

<b>Where: </b>333 S. Halsted St., Chicago, (312) 655-1234 or nationalhellenicmuseum.org

<b>Hours: </b>10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesdays; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays; 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays

<b>Cost: </b>Adults $10, seniors and students $8, kids 3-12 $7